Gravity waves generated during frontogenesis

Abstract

The waves that appear above the front are horizontally stationary with respect to the front, but are vertically propagating. The horizontal wavelength of the waves above the front is determined by standing waves that set up below the front. These waves corrugate the frontal surface, and these corrugations, in turn, determine the horizontal scale of the waves about the front. The waves under the front are standing and are trapped between the earth's surface and the frontal zone which, due to its conditions of flow reversal and small Ri, is assumed to be a reflector of gravity waves. The waves described here might acocunt for some of the banding seen in satellite images of frontal zones. -from Authors